Jailed Colombian drug kingpins seek deal for family

DAN MOLINSKIAssociated Press Writer

Published Monday, January 10, 2005

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Two aging founders of the Colombia's once-dominant Cali drug cartel have offered U.S. prosecutors a deal to keep them and their succcessor behind bars for 10 years if other relatives can be spared, the respected Colombian magazine Semana reported Sunday.

The article cited a five-page letter sent Dec. 7 to U.S. Attorney Marcos Jimenez in Miami by an attorney for drug lord Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela, who was extradited last month, and his brother Miguel, who is in a Colombian jail awaiting extradition.

Although Gilberto has said in previous interviews that he is innocent of the Miami drug charges, the document says he and his brother, both in their 60s, "are willing to declare themselves guilty ... and want to voluntarily reach an agreement, accepting without question that they be given the equivalent of a life sentence" in U.S. jails.

The sweetener is a pledge that Miguel's fugitive son William Rodriguez Abadia, who prosecutors say led day-to-day cartel operations after the brothers went to jail, would surrender in exchange for the same 10-year prison term.

Rodriguez Abadia also would provide "collaboration in the future in corruption or terrorism cases," said the document.

The brothers also want guarantees that members of their family living in Colombia who haven't been indicted in the United States will not be charged for any past actions, the document states.

A call for comment to the office of Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela's Miami attorney was not immediately returned.

The Cali cartel was responsible for supplying 80 percent of the cocaine sold in the United States during the 1990s. Even after their arrest in Colombia in 1995, U.S. prosecutors say the two ran the cartel from their jail cells and smuggled tons of cocaine to the United States from 1999 to 2002.

Gilberto admits a drug trafficking past but denies drug-running from jail. U.S. charges can only include crimes committed after 1997 when the United States and Colombia renewed extradition.

The document does not specify what type of "collaboration" Rodriguez Abadia would provide, but the Semana article cites an unnamed source close to the family who said he would deliver a list compiled by the brothers of 64 Colombian politicians, lawyers, judges, journalists and former members of the armed forces who worked with the Cali cartel during the past 20 years.

A former Cali competitor, ex-Medellin cartel kingpin Fabio Ochoa, is serving a 30-year prison sentence on a 2003 drug conviction in Miami after losing an extradition fight. His attorneys insisted the extradition treaty barred any sentence longer than 12 years.